On behalf of Working Wonders:

“Armageddon for sushi lovers?”

            Sushi has become an American phenomenon. It continues to grow in popularity as consumers strive to incorporate healthy alternative food choices into their diets. Many sushi fanatics cite its natural qualities as supporting reasons for choosing it over other food types.

            Those natural qualities are being compromised by another phenomenon. This phenomenon is a frightening one, worthy of being used as scare tactics. Quite simply, it is actually scary.

Brace yourself to gasp. Ready? Scientists have discovered trash in the Pacific Ocean.

            Wait. Actually brace yourself this time. Ready? They discovered trash in the form of a singular mass roughly twice the size of the state of Texas. That’s right. A body of trash approximately the same size as the fictional asteroid threatening to destroy the Earth in the movie “Armageddon.” While it may not be Armageddon, it is not fiction either.

            You might have heard it recently described as “trash island” in the news. Realistically, it’s worse than an island. The enormous body of trash is a tight collection of tiny waste particles constantly roaming the Pacific gathering more mass. Through a process referred to as bioaccumulation, this body of mass is affecting the entire globe, and could be directly affecting you sushi lovers.

            As this body of mass moves around it passes through the homes of all kinds of fish and other ocean dwelling organisms. These organisms, fish, and birds often mistakenly try tasting the miniscule pieces of trash. The organisms do not have any sort of digestion systems that break down the matter any better than waste facilities, so the matter just gets processed like any other food. It becomes part of the organism.

            “As an example, say some plankton (very small animals at the bottom of the food chain) eat some of this plastic. Then, a hundred of these plankton are then eaten by a small fish, like a Sardine. Then a Mackerel eats 25 of these Sardines. Then a Tuna eats 10 of these Mackerels. Then you eat a Tuna. Well guess what, you just ate a bunch of plastic, just how much? 100 (plankton) x 25 (Sardines) x 10 (Mackerels) = 25,000 pieces ingested by 1 Tuna.” (The Chic Ecologist)

            As a result these fish are full of dangerous and often poisonous toxins. How many pieces of Tuna have you eaten recently? That is just one species.

            This is a real problem. It exists. It is double the size of Texas floating in the ocean right now. No, it might not be Armageddon. It might not be the end of the world. But what if sushi, or any other sea food, means the world to you.  What if you were one of the thousands of people out there dependent on seafood in one form or another in order to live. Define the word “world” as you know it.